Inheritance and Tax Planning

Planning ahead for when you die allows you to set out clearly who should get what from your estate. QualitySolicitors Amphlett Lissimore can help you think through your plans and their financial impact. Our aim is to ensure that your loved ones are cared for when you no longer can.

The basics

The first £325,000 of your estate is called the 'nil-rate band'. With few exceptions, there's no inheritance tax to pay on the nil-rate band when you die.

There's no inheritance tax on anything you leave to your husband, wife or civil partner, or to a charity. Gifts to them are exempt from inheritance tax, and so is up to £100,000 left to a political party.

Except on exempt gifts and the nil-rate band, the rate of tax is 40 per cent.

If your husband, wife or partner has already died, there may be a second tax-free allowance of up to £325,000, unless his or her nil-rate band was used up in non-exempt gifts.

For tax purposes, your estate includes your share of any asset you own jointly with someone else, even if it passes automatically to the other person.

Trusts and gifts in your lifetime

Any money or property you gave away during the last seven years before you died may be counted as part of your estate for the purpose of calculating the tax.

Anything you gave away more than seven years before you died may also be added back to your estate if you continued to benefit from it.

If you had a life interest in trust property (and you will know what that expression means if you have one) there will be tax on the capital value of the trust property when you die. Your estate will be added to the trust property to calculate the total tax, which is then normally paid from your estate and the trust fund in proportion. This may mean that your estate is taxed even if it is less than the nil-rate band.

Saving tax

There is scope for saving inheritance tax by making use of the exemptions for some kinds of gift in your lifetime, setting up trusts, or re-arranging the ownership of property. We can advise you about this when drawing up your will.

Tax can sometimes be reduced even after someone has died. An agreement between the people inheriting the estate can, in effect, re-write the will, but we do not advise you to rely on this possibility when making your will. It cannot always be done, and the law that allows it may change without warning.

Expert legal advice you can rely on:

Wills and Probate

Many people do not thoroughly plan for the future after they are gone and often assume their possessions will simply pass automatically to their spouse or children. Often people believe their assets are too insignificant to need a formal arrangement or legal guidance.

Deputyship

Should an individual lose their mental capacity through an illness, or have a serious brain injury, then another person (usually a family member or a friend) can apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed "deputy" to take charge of the individual's property and financial affairs.

Elderly Client Services

Inheritance and Tax Planning

Planning ahead for when you die allows you to set out clearly who should get what from your estate. QualitySolicitors Amphlett Lissimore can help you think through your plans and their financial impact. Our aim is to ensure that your loved ones are cared for when you no longer can.

Lasting Power of Attorney

The benefits of drawing up a will are widely recognised. In doing so, you make provision for concluding your affairs after death.

There are also opportunities available to make arrangements for the possibility that you may become incapable of managing your own financial and welfare affairs during your lifetime. This becomes increasingly important as the risk of mental incapacity grows through longevity, illness or accident.

Probate and Administration

Whenever people die leaving more than a small amount of money or property, there is much to be done to settle their affairs. There's no need to wait till after the funeral to make the initial contact, and there may be advice or reassurance we can give you early on.

Please contact our private client team on 020 8771 5254, we are always happy to help.

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QualitySolicitors Amphlett Lissimore is a practising style of Amphlett Lissimore Bagshaws LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in England with register number OC356781. Our VAT number is 237 5879 19. Our services are provided by solicitors of England and Wales and we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. You can find the SRA's rules on its website.